Unimportant by Rebecca Layman

The fear we feel cannot compare to theirs;
Although, I think it too relative to contrast;
We’re told we must simply reduce our cares-
“Get over it” and put the past in the past.
A vital support system vanishes
When oppressed people have silenced pain;
Instead of deeming an identity fictitious,
Know that empathy can give a lion his Mane.
We’re told that gender and love should not define access;
Nor pigment predetermine potential;
If this is true, why am I told how to dress
And my black peers’ lives thought nonessential?
Apparently, ‘We The People’,
Is still not synonymous with ‘equal’.

Rebecca Layman is an OU junior studying mathematics education. She currently resides in Moore, Oklahoma, and enjoys spending her free time taking pictures of her cat, doing makeup, and binge watching Grey’s Anatomy.